Sadie
"So, how many eggs should I put in?" I asked, holding and egg over a bowl holding the Lemon Meringue Pie pastry batter, waiting for Chastity's instruction. I had never baked in my life, so all of this was new to me. My dad once told me my mother made amazing snickerdoodles, but I guess I would never know her secret.
We had gotten together on Saturday after Pregnancy Club as promised, all having our own individual room in Aimee's enormous kitchen, complete with state-of-the-art oven, stove, microwave, dishwasher and endless rows of cabinets. This was the first time I had entered Aimee's house, and I had only seen the living room, the hallway and the kitchen and I was already impressed. From the kitchen window I could see their pool and hotub, leaving wiggling wrays of light on the patio.
"No! You put the eggs in the meringue," Chastity pointed to a different bowl beside Tanya, who was quickly whisking a yellow batter. "And you only put the egg whites in." Chastity explained, returning to her Double Chocolate Brownies.
"Okay . . . how do I do that?" I asked. Chastity sighs, but shoots me her ever-there smile.
"Here, let me take care of it. Could you work on the brownies? All you have to do is add two teaspoons of vanilla and melt one cup of butter." She explained.
I walked over to her brownie pan, and scanned the area for a teaspoon. "Which one is a teaspoon?" I held up a small spoon, a medium spoon, and a large spoon. Chastity quickly looked up, and then back down.
"The medium spoon, the one with TSP on it." I checked the spoon, and sure enough there was TSP engraved on the plastic.
"Oh, okay. Thanks." I grabbed the small container of delicous-smelling brown liquid, and poored a little bit in the small spoon, and then again, only spilling a small amount. I was proud of myself.
Other than Chastity working on the pie and I on the brownies, Flame was making the apple pie she had mentioned at the diner, remembering some bits and pieces of her mother's recipe and using the many cookbooks we had bought for the rest. Tanya was making her alleged, "famous" banana muffins, and Aimee was whipping up some Toffee Cake.
I stood in front of the microwave, waiting for the butter to melt. I passed by Aimee, sticking a finger in her bowl and licking my fingers, savouring the toffee's thick taste. Aimee turned around and poked me with her spoon, leaving a small amount of stick remains on my shirt.
"No tasting! My creation is not yet finished." Aimee mocked being mad, and I laughed. The microwave beeped and I grabbed the pitcher of melted butter, slowly pouring it into the saucepan. While waiting for the mixture to cool, I looked around at the team of pregnant or already-mothered teenagers, standing around a kitchen, baking. Eight months ago, if someone had told me that I would be doing this, I would have laughed in their faces. Now, it seems normal. Being pregnant, being in The Pregnancy Club, and being able to be comfortable with Ben, which, so far, was amazing. Because our feelings were mutual now (I guess they always had been, but now they had both been admitted) we were so easy-going together, whether we were cuddling on a couch or sitting together in class. To be honest, things were even more simple than how they were before.
The microwave beeped and I went back over, taking the warm, melted butter and slowly pouring it into the saucepan. Now I just had to wait for it for it to settle and cool before I put in the dry ingrediants.
Only twenty minutes in the kitchen and I already sounded like a Food Network host.
* * *
We had finally finished, earlier than we had predicted and our creations varied from cake, pie, brownies, cookies, cupcakes, muffins and strudels.
"Okay, now we need to decide how much we're charging for everything." Chastity said, pulling out her notebook.
Suddenly I remembered that we wouldn't be selling these until Tuesday. "Um, Chastity? Shouldn't we be serving these fresh?" I asked, Chastity's face froze.
"Oh, you're right. Nobody wants to buy cold pie." Chastity tapped her forehead with her pencil, trying to think of what to do now. "Well, there's only one thing to do. We'll have to clear our scheduales and meet up tomorrow. Is that a problem for anyone?"
Everyone was silent. "Um, nobody really has much of a scheduale when they're pregnant." Tanya said and Chastity blushed.
"I suppose you're right. Okay, nine a.m. we meet up in front of Walmart. I'll bring the chairs, Flame you design the signs, Aimee you bring the cakes, Sadie, bring some folding tables and Tanya . . . bring Kyle. It'll look more believable that way."Chastity instructed, scribbling all of this down in her notebook.
I raised my hand. "Um, I don't own any folding tables." Chastity blew some hair out of her face.
"It's okay, I do. Just drive by my house with your pickup truck because it's the only thing that can hold them. Y'all are dismissed." Chastity stated, standing up and marching out the door.
"Who knew Chastity was such a buisness woman." I said.
"At least you don't have to live with her." Flame grumbled, grabbing her bag and following Chastity.
Soon everyone left Aimee's mansion, standing outside for a moment to admire its white brick exterior and iron balconies.
* * *
"Interested in buying some brownies?" Chastity asked a woman who was walking into Walmart. She took one look at us, sniffed, and then moved on. "Ugh, it's like people immediatley label us because we are pregnant or mothers."
Buisness had been slow so far. We had sold two brownies, five cookies and one slice of pumpkin pie. Which meant that we had yet to raise, three hundred twenty dollars.
"Are these homemade?" And old lady was inspecting the toffee cake.
"Yes, all of them are homemade. And very good, I may add." Chastity slided in beside of old lady, bringing out a sample of the toffee cake. "Here, try this." She held up the small sliver of cake to the old lady and a plastic fork. She carefully chewed, her lips making thwapping sounds as she smacked the toffee.
"Mmmm, just like my mother used to make." The old woman said, closing her eyes. "I'll buy the whole cake."
"Oh, thank you so much, ma'am." She walked over to the cash register and took the woman's money, and then handed her the box of cake. As the old lady began to leave, she looked over at Tanya, who was holding Kyle in her lap.
"So nice to see young girls taking care of their younger siblings." She murmured as she entered Walmart. Tanya looked confused.
"She thought that Kyle was your little brother." Aimee explained.
"Eh, whatever gets us money." Tanya shrugged.
Time passed by and more people were entering Walmart, especially mothers with young children. They were our big customers. All it took was one meltdown in front of Walmart because of being denied a cookie, and they were reeled in. One particularly large man bought five brownies, one of each, and three pieces of pie, blueberry, lemon meringue and pumpkin.
The samples were working too. People took one taste of our baking and they fell in love. Obviously they were better than they all thought.
The muffins were a big seller too. Joggers and people on health kicks bought our carrot or bran muffins, preaching about iron and protein.
By the end of the day, we had made two hundred forty eight dollars, which meant we needed one hundred more dollars.
"Oh no, we didn't make enough." Chastity slumped down in her chair.
"It's okay Chas, we could always pitch in twenty dollars." Aimee offered, pulling her wallet out of her purse and handing over twenty.
"Yeah, sure. That way we can buy it now." Tanya said, handing over twenty, then Flame, then Chastity. Soon everyone was looking at me.
"Um, sorry, but unlike you guys I don't carry around a wallet or money." I said sheepishly. I hated looking so poor in front of them.
"It's okay, I'll pay for you." Aimee grabbed another twenty from her wallet.
"Okay . . . but I promise I'll pay you back."
"Oh don't worry about it." I scowled. As thankful as I was, I also hated when Aimee accidentally flaunted her riches.
* * *
We bought the laptop that we had seen on the Internet, and now we were sitting in the back of my dad's pickup, eating the leftovers.
"Mm, these brownies are awesome." Flame said as she sunk her teeth into the moist brownies.
"Thank you, I actually managed to cook something without using a toaster." I smiled, proud of myself, and everyone burst out laughing.
After everyone had calmed down, Chastity spoke. "So, we'll give Jen the laptop at the next Pregnancy Club meeting, and I'll wrap it myself. She's going to love it!" The stress had left Chastity and had been replaced by excitement. She passed around some Macadamia Nut cookies, then held hers up in the air.
"A toast, to a sucessful bake sale, and these delicious cookies." Chastity chuckled, and we all toasted our cookies, sitting in my dad's pickup truck in the middle of the Walmart parking lot.
Weird was normal for teenage mothers.